Secret Empire

Recently, the subject of rotating art teams in superhero comics reached a tipping point, and people have started to wonder if the concept does more harm than good in the long run. With double-shipping in superhero comics becoming more prevalent and artists’ contributions are becoming seen as interchangeable, it’s important to stop and ask: Are rotating artistic creative teams good for comics in the long-run, or does it start us down a path of recognizing the writer’s contributions as inherently more important to the finished product?

Every month, comic publishers release their solicitation announcements to provide information to readers and retailers on comics that are coming out in three months’ time, but there’s so much information dropped at once that a lot can slip through the cracks. This month in Marvel's June solicitations, there are some big returns of forgotten characters and costumes, a surprising-yet-welcome guest artist worth talking about, and two big debuts of mystery characters in familiar roles.

We're marching ever closer to 2017's all-Nazi, all-the-time mega-event Secret Empire but it seems that a good number of the Marvel heroes aren't going to take the HYDRA takeover lying down. The publisher has announced a number of one-shots tying into the event that feature the likes of Mockingbird, Emma Frost and Black Widow forming groups to stand up to Steve Rogers definitely-not-a-Nazi-we-promise regime.

Since Marvel revealed that Captain America, Steve Rogers was a Nazi --- I'm sorry, "agent of HYDRA" --- last year, we all knew it would blow up eventually, and earlier this year the publisher announced plans for a summer event titled Secret Empire. Today, Marvel spilled some of the beans on what exactly Secret Empire is and how it will impact the heroes of the Marvel Universe.

With Civil War II done and dusted, Marvel has its eyes on the next big event to change everything forever. The publisher has shared teasers for an upcoming storyline titled "Secret Empire," but no further information has been revealed. Given the current storyline in Captain America: Steve Rogers, in which Rogers has been rewritten as a secret fascist, and the events of the original "Secret Empire" story, in which the US government was infiltrated by extremists at the highest levels, it seems likely that the new "Secret Empire" story will see Rogers' HYDRA insinuate its way further into the Marvel Universe --- and the groundwork has been laid with the appointment of a new director of SHIELD in this week's Marvel comics.